The only girl in a family of nine children, Leïla (feisty Layla Mohammadi) shared her childhood between Iran and the United States until her parents fled their native country in the 1980s. Screenwriter, lesbian, pregnant with an English actor playing the lead role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch Off-Broadway (Tom Byrne), the thirty-something believes she is a disappointment in the eyes of her mother Shireen (Niousha Noor, imperious). While her entire family is at her father’s bedside in the hospital, Leïla learns from her grandmother (Bella Warda, truculent) painful secrets that Shireen, a woman attached to traditions who has become a successful real estate agent to pay for medical expenses, is hiding from her. .
Of Iranian origin, American director and screenwriter Maryam Keshavarz, to whom we owe Circumstance, a sensual drama set in Iran recounting an affair between two young girls, draws on her own memories to create a lively dramatic comedy about a conflictual relationship between a mother and her daughter. Intended to be a tribute to the courage of Iranian women of yesterday and today, The Persian Version recounts over fifty years the destiny of two strong-willed women struggling with family pressure, social conventions and ancestral traditions.
Focusing first on Leïla’s tribulations, the filmmaker enjoys confronting cultures and generations in brief scenes of offbeat humor through invigorating editing. With conquering confidence and a delicious sense of self-deprecation, the heroine, who makes her entrance in a flamboyant burkini during a drunken costume party, breaks through the fourth wall to throw at us her reflections, sometimes steeped in contradictions.
Halfway through, while Maryam Keshavarz hands over the narration to young Shireen (Kamand Shafieisabet, moving), the tone becomes more dramatic, the joyfully festive atmosphere becomes morose and the pace slows down slightly. Gone are the charming scenes where the two cultures coexist happily, including the one where the whole family dances to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun – a song by Cindy Lauper beautifully covered in Persian during the end credits. If this break in tone surprises and raises fears that the film, which won the jury and screenplay prize at Sundance, will veer into a tearful melodrama, it is clear that this striking contrast between these two destinies which echo each other gives more depth to this classic but tasty family story.